More Proof of the ERP Channel

CEO George Klaus has finally owned up to the fact that has company has a channel program, following Epicor’s Five-Star award by Epicor’s Partners for Growth Program. Now, this is very strange since Klaus has spent much of his time during Webcasts telling investors and Wall Street that the company is totally direct sales. Now, Klaus said he’s proud of the channel program.

Several publications, such as this one from ChannelWeb, have discussed the NetSuite 100% channel offer:

NetSuite’s retort comes on the heels of the company’s effort to expand its channel partner ranks by offering resellers 100 percent margins on first-year subscription revenue.

Microsoft gave it’s channel incentives to sell against NetSuite as reported in the Channel Register:

Microsoft said it was tapping its 10,000 US reseller partners to punt its Dynamics range of software through the channel.

And several other companies such as Lawson, Acumatica, Sage, and others have announced the addition of several new VARs around the world.

So all vendors seem to agree that VARs will continue to play an important role in driving ERP sales and deployments. What all vendors do not agree on is whether or not they should be 100% VAR focused or the role of VARs in supporting customers.